Research Shows Additional $1.64 Billion Spent on Video Game Content for Third Quarter 2011

Total Consumer Spend on Hardware, Content, and Accessories in the U.S. Estimated at $4.2 Billion

According to the Q3 2011 U.S. Games Market Dynamics* report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, in addition to the $1.3 billion spent in the U.S. by consumers on new physical video and PC game software in the third quarter of 2011, the total consumer spend on content via other monetization methods, including used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable add-on content, and mobile games, is estimated at $1.64 billion. The total amount spent by consumers on hardware, content and accessories is estimated at $4.2 billion, a decrease of 11% percent versus Q3 2010.

"New physical retail sales had a rough third quarter. Increases in sales from some of these other monetization methods, and full game and add-on digital downloads in particular, only partially offset the decline seen in the new physical retail channel," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "We are already seeing some dynamic changes in the marketplace in Q4 and we are seeing interesting geographic differences from the expansion of our coverage in the UK, France and Germany. Q4 2012 results from both the U.S. and Europe will be issued in March, 2012."

Methodology

The estimates are published in NPD's report, U.S. Games Market Dynamics (formerly known as the Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend) -released by The NPD Group in December 2011 - and are derived leveraging NPD's portfolio of physical POS tracking (Retail Tracking Service) and consumer research including the Games Acquisition Monitor, Video Game and PC Game Subscriptions Report and Consumer Tracking Service. It also incorporates consumer spend estimation provided by NPD retail and publisher partners, and calibration with third-party sources.